How FDR Handled Big Money, Versus What We Are Getting Today

When FDR, not only a man born to riches, but a member of America's patrician class, was elected President, he believed that it was in everybody's interest to emerge from the depression, and that he could come up with a program for recovery that would be favored by all, because it would work for everybody.  By 1936, he had learned differently.  Roosevelt had figured out that the rich, the bankers, the investors, were so intent on pursuing their own short term interest that they would shove the rest of us into the gutter rather than share the burden of rebuilding our economy.  Roosevelt was forced to make a choice between the bankers and the people, and he made that choice.  If you have never heard this short excerpt from a 1936 FDR speech, please listen to it:



Roosevelt chose the people over the bankers, and his choice led us out of the Depression into our nation's longest period of prosperity.  Barack Obama, who claims to be a student of Roosevelt, must be familiar with this story, as it represents  the most fundamental change in Roosevelt's Presidency, and it resulted in Social Security, Federal banking insurance and many of the signature programs of his time in office.  In fact, the period following his re-election in 1936 produced much of the Democratic party's historic legacy, bringing a decent life to tens of millions of Americans.

When confronted, 75 years later, with the same choice that Roosevelt faced, Barack Obama chose the bankers.

I don't think there is really much more to say.

P.S. Note where this video comes from.  No wonder they couldn't tolerate him on the air.  

Comments

Magpie said…
FDR thrived on being hated. He actually used it to political effect, and he had nothing but contempt for the cashed-up Right, which they fully deserve of course.

Obama doesn’t seem to have that in him (and it's probably harder when you know people hate you before you even open your mouth...).
Doesn’t make him a bad person. Quite the reverse. But it’s troubling. And it doesn't excuse him, of course. That's the job.

I’m reminded of something a cop friend said once about his union rep: “he’s not a nice man – but I don’t want a nice man going in to bat for me on my pay, conditions and safety. I want someone who can be very nasty”.
Anonymous said…
it's still debatable as to what FDR did really did get us out of the depression or profiteering from WWII.
Some believe he prolonged the depression. I'll give him one thing he gave us SS which was created when when the average life span was 65 . Since him and LBJ the entitlement society has exploded .
If you agree with FDR so much do you also agree with him being against collective bargaining for public employees?
Translated that is government workers bargaining against tax payers
Green Eagle said…
it's still debatable as to what FDR did really did get us out of the depression"

It's only debatable by unreconstructed right wing fantasists of the sort that try to tell us that the Nazis were really liberals, or that global warming is a hoax.

Any honest person who investigates this matter knows that Republican giveaways to the rich and Republican enabling of the worst of business excesses caused the Great Depression, and good old fashioned Democratic Keynesian economics ended it.

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